Where were the traditional PPP faithful?

Jul 16, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – There should have been a monster gathering on Sunday. Kitty Market should have overflowed to Bourda Market, skirted the Atlantic.

What happened to all the great many PPP supporters? Six thousand or so isn’t a multitude, a compelling, breathtaking assembly of the faithful. Certainly not one of old, when so many flocked to these occasions.

That was Sunday. On Monday, the new fellow showed up, and he was almost swallowed up by his crowd, the biggest by far, dwarfing those of the PPP and PNC. Where have the PPP supporters gone?

On Sunday in Kitty, the buses were busy trucking in folks from across Guyana. With money so plenty, clearly the PPP is now a subject of pity, when that is the number that it could summon to Kitty Market. Certainly, there was a decent mass, but that’s not good enough when an explosion of people would have answered all questions, reversed all doubts, overwhelmed all competitors. After all, the PPP has all the money, is in complete control of all the goodies.

Its leaders say how generous they have been to Guyana’s poor, those catching no end of daily hell with a beast called cost of living. One that threatens to devour their children. Why were all those poor so poorly indisposed to the PPP? Ingratitude is out, since they feel cheated of their oil wealth, and how it was shared. People are punishing. Indifference is down the drain, because the poor see, and are infuriated by who gets and who doesn’t.

The latter includes their name in capital letters. To make matters more unpalatable, those who get an abundance of Guyana’s newfound riches, deepen the wounds of the poor, by inserting loads of stealing into their operations, culture. Still worse, the leaders they elected to be their government either condone the robberies, or cover them up. Leaders in the PPP kick those who condemn the endless billion-dollar thieveries. Some don’t care, so they went to Kitty. Those who do, who know what it is to be ignored, insulted, feel pain, sat on their hands. Take those buses and shove them up to where they belong. There are limits to what some people will take. The timing of the flurry of cash and care leaves the distressed feeling tired of being used. Why only now? Why not the last four and a half years, especially given all the pleadings, weeping? Too little, too late. And too clever by half, also. That was where the PPP traditional support base was.

The PPP has shared out money and favors to some traditional PNC supporters, inclusive of house lots, jobs, contracts. No question that many of them came out to Kitty Market, and when their numbers are almost as many as those of the PPP faithful, the staggering returns. Where are PPP supporters, those who have been the party’s backbone? The PPP gained some PNC supporters, but what happened to their own? The known and the proven? Conclusion: a lot of PPP voters are mighty unhappy, and Jagdeo’s excitement level showed it.

Dr. Jagdeo himself noted that over 25 on the PPP list of candidates are under 25. Congratulations! He just added to his already known pool of glazed-eyed, grey-faced, and yellow-complexioned youngsters. To put differently, his chessboard of unknowing pawns and unquestioning worshippers expanded. They will blindly answer any bell, readily charge into any cannon, because of the rewards he promises. Like the PNC crossovers. Jagdeo is that kind of doctor; but still head and shoulders above the rest. He knows how to play the command-and-control game. It is better known as big sticks and little carrots. Today, his own people are tired of his tricks.

The WIN man furnished a killing for the media because he has ‘no plan.’ But who delves into the details of their plans at this stage of a campaign? Over a billion American dollars spent already, and Jagdeo cannot share whatever plan that he has for his Wales gas-to-energy project, other than two words: cheap electricity. The PPP has another plan and that is to ostracize, demonize, and criminalize Mohamed the Younger. The more that Jagdeo does that, the more people turn to Mohamed the Younger and transform him into Mohamed the Contender. Monday’s Nomination Day blue wave gave the first confirmations of that point.

When all is said, politics is about numbers. Who had many dollars and how many Guyanese got their fair share? When people receive, believe they were fairly treated, they report for party duty in Kitty from Corentyne to Annandale. Call made; call heard. Those not responding, means that they didn’t receive. The number of dollars (oil) provides the energy for citizens to turnout in vast numbers. The PPP didn’t provide, so the PPP collide with grim reality. Loyalists numbers dwindled.

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• GHK Lall, Guyana Elections, PPP faithful, PPP supporters

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